Mr. Pei's Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei

by Julie Leung, Yifan Wu (Illustrator)

Overview

In this stunning picture book about renowned architect I. M. Pei, award-winning author Julie Leung and captivating illustrator Yifan Wu unite to tell the story of the man who changed architecture forever with his forward-thinking shapes.

As a boy in Shanghai, Ioeh Ming Pei was awestruck by the enormous buildings that popped up around him every day. He quickly figured out exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up—an architect who designed skyscrapers that touched the clouds.

I. M. Pei set off to make his mark, and with his appealingly modern ideas, he found himself with many clients—including a rock and roll museum, businesses around the world, and even a president’s widow. Everyone wanted I. M. Pei to design their buildings. Though his plans weren’t always immediately popular, his legacy has endured, and his structures can still be seen all around the world, from the JFK Library and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art to the Louvre Pyramid.

Readers will be inspired by the spare yet informative text and luminous illustrations, which bring I. M. Pei’s incredible legacy and achievements to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063006300
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/28/2024
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	643,321
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Julie Leung was raised in the sleepy suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated with an English and journalism degree from the University of Georgia. By day, she is a marketing director in book publishing. By night, she is a children’s book author. Her first picture book, Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist, won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Visit her online at jleungbooks.com.

Yifan Wu is an award-winning Chinese illustrator based in the US. Her work often features ethereal, dreamlike landscapes, exploring storytelling through metaphors and analogies. Yifan creates highly conceptual illustrations for newspapers and magazines, and her work can also be seen in animated advertisements, branding illustrations, posters, and various products. She loves dancing, gardening, fantasy novels, and cats. Visit yifanwuart.com to learn more.

Editorial Reviews

04/15/2024

Leung and Wu portray renowned modernist architect I.M. Pei (1917–2019) as perceptive, serious, and determined from an early age. Visiting stream-carved volcanic rocks in Suzhou, China, young Pei notes the “careful planning” behind the pieces. As an adult, he breaks with decorative architecture and embraces modernism—and he soon becomes one of its most recognizable champions, with commissions that include a new entrance to the Louvre. Pei’s relentless creativity, and the excitement of modernism itself, are conveyed via digital images that combine crisp lines with almost luminescent colors, evoking the movement’s signature geometric shapes and favored materials of glass and steel. Reportorial spreads occasionally take wonderful flights of fancy: one shows Pei leaning over Hong Kong as he contemplates creating a skyscraper that will withstand typhoons. A timeline and sources conclude. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

In language as simple and stately as her subject’s best works, Leung traces the long career of I.M. Pei. Acute and rich in insight.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A fascinating and beautifully illustrated biography of one of our most celebrated architects. Highly recommended.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

“Imaginative. A good introduction to an influential architect.” — Booklist

“Pei’s relentless creativity, and the excitement of modernism itself, are conveyed via digital images that combine crisp lines with almost luminescent colors. Wonderful.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2024

PreS-Gr 3—From an innovative skyscraper to a futuristic presidential museum to a 70-foot tall glass pyramid at the Louvre, architect I.M. Pei made his mark on the world by designing extraordinary buildings. Born in China, Pei moved to Shanghai in 1927 at age 10, where he was fascinated to see an early high-rise building go up. Inspired to design buildings of his own, Pei moved to the U.S. to study architecture just as the profession was moving away from traditional styles and towards embracing modern designs using new materials and construction methods. After he was chosen to design the JFK presidential library, Pei became a highly sought after architect, completing numerous projects around the world, "each carefully planned by a man who could foresee how the shape of a building must harmonize with nature, with people, and with time." Richly colored, digitally enhanced illustrations perfectly complement the text, with colors and shapes ranging from the curved lines and naturalistic earth tones of a rock garden in Suzhou, China to dazzling angles, geometric shapes, and neon colors for Pei's modern buildings. Back matter includes a time line and selected sources. VERDICT A fascinating and beautifully illustrated biography of one of our most celebrated architects. Highly recommended.—Sue Morgan

School Library Journal

★ 2024-02-03
A tribute to the distinctive approach and sensibility of the renowned modernist architect.

In language as simple and stately as her subject’s best works, Leung traces the long career of I.M. Pei (1917-2019) from childhood encounters with the intricately water-sculpted volcanic rocks in the gardens at Suzhou to his design of an art museum for the Chinese city many decades later. In between, she follows him to Shanghai and then the U.S., where he trained in his vocation, became a citizen, and, after winning a breakthrough commission to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, went on to a long and distinguished career. The author artfully develops her thesis that Pei “could foresee how the shape of a building must harmonize with nature, with people, and with time” by describing how he solved potential challenges in some of his iconic buildings, such as the tall but slender Bank of China tower in Hong Kong with its innovative diagonal bracing, as well as the daring but now iconic glass pyramid at the Louvre. (The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, alas, gets just a bare mention in the closing timeline.) In Wu’s clean and lovely illustrations, Pei stands amid fanciful, harmoniously hued geometric shapes that tumble kaleidoscopically through his thoughts before flowing naturally, effortlessly, into structural components. Buildings and people alike seem to stand with graceful but monumental solidity.

Acute and rich in insight. (selected sources) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews